Blue
Borage
A stout rough hairy annual growing to 60cm. The flowers are bright blue with the narrow petals bent back to reveal the collection of stamens in clusters. The leaves are pointed oval in shape with wavy margins. Borage grows on waysides, rough and waste ground.
Traditionally Borage has been used for gastrointestinal, airways, cardiovascular and urinary disorders. It has been used throughout history and has been referenced by Pliny the Elder, Francis Bacon and John Gerard’s “Herball” published in 1597.
Borage flowers from May to September. This specimen was growing on Grange Road where it might have been introduced but Borage is generally widely distributed.
Brooklime
Brooklime has rounded leaves, and thick, juicy stems that are both creeping and upright. Its leaves can persist all year-round. It produces spikes of bright blue (sometimes pink) flowers which are borne on the stems in pairs and are very small. It grows in the wet margins of brooks, streams and ditches, and also in very damp soil. It is an ideal plant for wildlife pond margins as it is easy to control and provides cover for tadpoles and sticklebacks.
The fleshy leaves of Brooklime are edible, but very bitter. Like Water-cress, it was traditionally used in salads and was thought to prevent scurvy.
It is in bloom between May and September This specimen was found by Ashton brook at Spy Hill.
Hairy Tare
A medium scrambling annual vetch with tiny, pale to bluish lilac flowers around 4mm in size. The leaves are formed by 6-8 pairs of alternate narrow leaflets with branched tendrils and this distinguishes it from the very similar Smooth Tare. It grows in dry grassy places.
Flowering from May to August. This photograph was taken on the grassy bank beyond Grange Road on the main road between Ashton and Mouldsworth.
Green
Broad-leaved Dock
The sturdier of our two common docks with tall stems to 1m or more. It is a coarse tough plant as per the picture below but when you look closely at the flowers they show, as per the second picture below a more delicate structure. It grows in lowland grassland and disturbed ground, road verges and waste ground.
It flowers May to October This example was growing in the community pavilion field in the grassy areas behind the trees.
Lords and Ladies
The unusual Lords-and-Ladies – known also as Cuckoo Pint – has a curious flower design in which tiny flowers are densely whorled around a cylindrical spadix which is surrounded by a leaf-like spathe with leaves that are broad and arrow shaped. It grows in damp shady places and often is found in woods and hedgerow.
It flowers from April to June and produces the familiar orange-red spike of poisonous berries from late July. This specimen was found growing at the start of Shay Lane in Ashton
Pellitory of the Wall
A spreading hairy herbaceous perennial to 50cms. The flowers are tiny and green followed by red brown fruits. It likes growing on rocks, stony waste ground, and old walls or at their base.
It has had several herbal uses. The young plant can be used as a salad ingredient, but be aware that it is a very active and early source of hayfever pollens.
Flowers May to October. This example was spotted growing outside the Golden Lion and further examples can be seen on the walls down Westend.
Pineappleweed
Pineappleweed is a member of the Mayweed family but it looks radically different. While all other Mayweeds have daisy-like flowers, Pineappleweed has just the central button-like (disc florets) part and none of the white ray florets found with other family members.
This is a dark green, hairless and strongly pineapple scented low annual; and like all other Mayweeds, the leaves are pinnate with thread-like segments. Pineappleweed grows from May to November in bare, disturbed and often well-trodden places. It can be found throughout Mouldsworth and Ashton with this fine example growing on the curb in Peel Crescent.
Stinging Nettle
A tall tenacious patch forming perennial to 2m. A plant to avoid handling without gloves. The flowers are tiny and greenish. It likes shady places, including woods, field edges, road verges and around buildings, wherever there is rubble or litter, favouring soil rich in nitrogen. It flowers from May to September.
It is a key food plant for the caterpillars of peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies.
It was a valuable herb and has been used for many purposes including to provide thread for sewing, to make fine textiles as well as sail cloth and rope. Some claim it is superior to cotton for making velvet and plush. Its roots yield a yellow dye and the leaves yield a permanent green colour, used to dye woollens in Russia.
Nutritionally nettle is high in vitamins and minerals and have a long history as an animal feed additive and as a culinary plant, being used in the spring for salads, soups and as a spinach like vegetable. It has also been used to make nettle beer.
Stinging nettle has several medicinal properties as it is claimed to be astringent, anti-asthmatic and diuretic and suitable for a range of purposes. The below example was seen under the hedge on the pavilion playing field.
Mauve
Rhododendron
A tall evergreen shrub to 5m, aggressively colonising woods, heaths and moors. Flowers unmistakeably large and showy mauve-purple.
It is a plant that was introduced into the UK, but now conservationists are trying to eradicate it in the wild due to its invasive nature.
Flowers May to June. This was growing under trees alongside the Millenium footpath between Grange Road and Mouldsworth.
Pink
Birdsfoot
A member of the pea family, Birdsfoot is a slender prostrate sprawling annual. The minute pea-like flowers are pale pink with darker streaks, whitish wings and a yellow keel, 3-5mm across in heads of 3-8 flowers. The leaves have many leaflets and the seed pods are bearded and curved such that 3 together look like a “birds foot”.
It flowers from May onwards on dry sandy places avoiding lime. This specimen was seen on a sunny dry bank at Wheeldon Copse in Manley.
Common Bistort
This plant is a medium unbranched perennial often growing in conspicuous patches. The pink flowers are in compact spikes with narrowly triangular leaves on long winged stalks. Bistort grows in damp grassland, open woods often near water.
In the north of England it was known as ‘Pudding Dock’ (or sometimes ‘Passion Dock’) because it was commonly used to create a traditional pudding around Eastertime, probably originating as a cleansing, bitter dish for Lent.
It flowers May to August. This example was growing in the verge of Old Lane, Mouldsworth.
Common Spotted Orchid
Probably the most common of the UK orchids, it grows to 50cm with flowers varying from white to dark purple with dots and small blotches of darker purple on the spurred lower lip of the flower that grows in a dense pointed spike. The leaves are narrow and usually dark-Spotted. This orchid often hybridises with Heath Spotted and Southern Marsh orchids and grows in grassland, open woods, fens and usually on lime.
A popular beverage called saloop/salep was made in the 17th and 18th from the roots of orchids. This was before the rise of coffee and tea. Its preparation required that the powdered root be added to water until thickened, sweetened, and then flavoured with orange flower or rose water.
This variety of orchid flowers from late May to August. This was found growing in a woodland margin at Wheeldon Copse on Manley.
Common Storks-bill
Common Stork’s-bill is hairy plant of dry grasslands, and bare and sandy areas, both inland and around the coast. The flowers are pink and are 10-18mm in diameter. The seed pods are shaped like a crane’s bill (hence the name) and explode when ripe, sending the seeds, with their feathery ‘parachutes’, flying.
The entire plant is edible with a flavour similar to sharp parsley. The pink flowers are a valuable source of honey (nectar), and also furnish much pollen, Among the Zuni people, a poultice of chewed root is applied to sores and rashes and an infusion of the root is taken for stomach ache.
Its bright pink flowers appear in May and last through the summer until August. Found in a field at Spy Hill.
Common Vetch
This is a very variable sprawling and scrambling annual. The flowers are purple, solitary or in pairs. The leaves have 3 to 8 pairs of leaflets with branched tendrils. The vetches differ from the pea family by having smooth unkeeled stems. It is also known as the garden vetch, tare or simply vetch and is a nitrogen-fixing leguminous plant.
It flowers May to September. This plant was seen growing in the hedgerow in Grange Road.
Cut-Leaved Cranesbill
A short / medium erect to sprawling annual to 60cm. Flowers pink-purple, well notched sepals ending in a bristle. The leaves are cut nearly to the base. A plant of cultivated, waste and grassy places with bare patches.
Flowers May to September This was a low spreading plant growing by a footpath alongside a field of maize at Peel Hall.
French Cranesbill
This attractive plant is one of the large cranesbill family. It has pretty pinkish, five-petalled blooms with maroon veins which are formed like shallow cups. The leaves are large and deeply serrated.
The fruits resemble long beaks after which the Cranesbills are named. Grows to 60 cms in height. Flowers May to September. They are often found as an escape from cultivation and tend to become established on roadside verges.
Medicinally, when the leaves are made into an infusion the resulting tea can be used as a mouthwash to relieve mouth sores and bleeding gums and to stem nosebleeds. The flower pictured was found near the hedgerow along Manley Lane to the north-west of Mouldsworth and close to the old post office/shop.
Heath Spotted Orchid
Flowers are typically white to pale pink with variable markings these being typically light speckling and spots. The flower spike can bear up to 60 flowers, is pyramidal at first, but gradually fills out to an oval shape once the flowers are fully open. The flower lip, which is broader than it is long, can have a frilly appearance. Leaves are narrow and pointed, occasionally unspotted but more often marked with small dark spots or blotches.
Occasionally grows to 70 cm. but usually much shorter specimens up to 20 cm. are found. The plant is very similar in appearance to the common spotted orchid and it is difficult to separate the two species. A distinguishing feature is that the lip’s central lobe is appreciably smaller in the case of the heath spotted orchid.
Favours damp, slightly acidic soils and therefore common on heathland, bogs and upland meadows.
Flowers late May to early August. This flower was found, along with several others, growing on a grassy bank at Ashton Grange. The plant is widespread and common in the UK, although hitherto unrecorded in the vicinities of Ashton and Mouldsworth.
Hedgerow Cranesbill
One of the muskily aromatic cranesbills this is a medium downy perennial that grows to 60 cms. Its flowers (14-18mm) are a pink-purple whose petals are deeply notched. Leaves are rounder in shape than most cranesbills and have between 5 and 7 lobes. Its favoured places are meadows, hedgerows, waste and cultivated ground.
It was first recorded in England in the 18th century and is thought to have been introduced into Britain from the mountainous regions of southern Europe, which might explain its other name of Mountain Cranesbill.
Flowers May to September Seen on the verge of Smithy Lane, Mouldsworth close to the junction with Well Lane.
Red Clover
The commonest pink or pink purple clover, but never red. Likes to grow in grassland or disturbed places.
It fixes nitrogen in to the soil and is often grown to enrich farmland and animal feed.
Flowers May to November. This example is easily spotted growing on the sandy bank by the footpath, 100metres beyond the village sign on the way to Mouldsworth.
Rosy Garlic
Rosy Garlic is a medium plant growing to 70cm with dark to pale pink flowers. The stamens do not protrude from the many long-stalked flowers which grow in a loose head with short papery bracts with flat leaves. Rosy Garlic is an introduced/naturalised species that is established but scattered across the UK. It’s found in dunes, hedgerows and waysides.
The bulbs and leaves may be eaten cooked and have an onion/garlic flavour.
The flowers appear between May and June.
This plant was growing in a good sized group in the hedgerow along Church Road towards the Primary school in Ashton.
Shining Cranesbill
Shining Cranesbill is our only Cranesbill with glossy, scarcely downy leaves. It is an erect to sprawling medium perennial growing to 40cm. The flowers are a deep pink up to 20mm across and the petals are not notched while the leaves are roundish and 5-lobed. It is widely distributed growing on walls, hedge banks and bare places.
Typically this Cranesbill flowers from May through to September.
This specimen was found on Gonger Lane as it leaves the village.
Wild Radish
A medium bristly sprawling annual to 75cm. The flowers colour is variable and can be pale yellow, mauve or often white with lilac veins. The seed pods are beaded with a slender beak. An arable weed.
The fleshy leaves of Brooklime are edible, but very bitter. Like Water-cress, it was traditionally used in salads and was thought to prevent scurvy.
It is in bloom between May and October This specimen was found in a meadow at Peel Hall.
Purple
Common Comfrey
Our commonest comfrey of wetter habitats. Perennial to 1.5m. The flowers can be yellowish cream or dull purple. It likes moist places especially by slow water, and in marshes.
The plant is renowned for healing broken bones hence its alternative names of Knitbone, Bruisewort or Boneset. Research shows it contains two substances, allantoin and choline which promote healthy red blood corpuscles especially valuable after blood loss. However it also contains other carcinogenic alkaloids.
It also makes an excellent compost and liquid fertilizer.
Flowers May to July. This grows in Gongar lane down by Ashton Brook.
Common Vetch ssp Nigra
A very variable sprawling / scrambling annual to 75cm with single or paired flowers. It is uniformly coloured unlike the general variety. It is a plant of grassy and waste places.
It flowers May to September. This plant was growing on the verge just below the junction of Well Lane with Smithy Lane.
Dusky Cranesbill
By far our darkest-flowered cranesbill, the flowers almost blackish purple. It is a perennial growing to 80cms. It is a frequent garden escape preferring shady places.
It flowers May to September. This specimen was found growing in the grass verge on Smithy Lane below the junction with Well Lane.
Red
Scarlet Pimpernel
The colour alone of this little flower is almost a sufficient guide to its identification – a pale scarlet or very deep salmon red. The scarlet pimpernel is a prostate annual that grows to 40cm. Flowers are small (4 – 7mm) and leaves are pointed oval, unstalked and arranged in pairs or whorls.
It grows in cornfields and gardens but can also be found on waste ground and on dusty tracks. It is also known as the shepherd’s weather-glass because its blossoms only expand in fine sunny weather.
Flowers May to October. This plant was found growing on the edge of the car park of Poplar Grove adjacent to the old Mouldsworth Motor Museum.
White
Bramble
Bramble, or Blackberry as more commonly known is one of the most familiar and variable wildflowers. A very tough prickly rambling to clambering, half-evergreen perennial to 4m. The flowers can be white or pink followed by dark purple fruit later in the year. It is broken down into various (up to 400) sub species which requires an expert to determine. It will grow virtually anywhere and once established is difficult to remove. In our area, it frequents hedgerows and woodland areas
The fruit is edible and collected by many including humans, birds and badgers. They are usually eaten raw, made into desserts or even an excellent wine.
It flowers May to November. This example is easily spotted growing near the footpath gate down past the Ashton Hayes Scout Hut.
Cleavers
A straggling annual, clambering over other vegetation in the hedgerows. Also known as Goosegrass. The tiny white flower is inconspicuous in small stalled clusters. It clings to animals and human clothing. It is a serious weed of hedges and disturbed ground.
As an herb, its roots yield a red dye and the seeds are said to make a palatable substitute for coffee. It has been used to treat skin problems and as a spring tonic.
It flowers May to September. It is found pervasively throughout the Ashton and Mouldsworth area.
Hedge Bindweed
A pretty plant but one you do not want in your garden, except maybe in a hedgerow or wild area. It spreads by seeds and once established is hard to remove, as any fragment of root left will regrow rapidly. Each flower only has a short life but they are produced in profusion over a long period.
Horse Chestnut
A tall ornamental tree to 40m with distinctive palmate leaves, white flowers with a yellow or pink spot, in striking candles to 30cm. It produces the typical conker fruit in the autumn.
Apart from the fruits use to play conkers, it can also reputedly be used to keep spiders out of houses if placed in corners of a room. In the war it was also collected in quantity by schoolchildren as a raw material in the making of explosives.
It flowers May to June.
This specimen was found growing on Church Road below the Village Hall.
Lesser Stitchwort
The delightful Lesser Stitchwort is a smaller version of the Stitchwort that fills our hedgerows in the spring. The white petals are deeply cut on short smooth stems. It grows in grassy banks. It is also known by the common names common starwort, grass-leaved stitchwort and grass-like starwort.
Flowers May to August. This example this was seen in Grange Road.
Marsh Stitchwort
The Marsh Stitchwort is intermediate in size between the lesser and greater Stitchwort’s. The white flowers are between 12 and 18mm in diameter. The petals are deeply cleft. Sepals are shorter than the petals and have whitish edges. The flower stems are long, thin and fragile-looking. Grows to 60 cms. Grows in wet grassland and marshes.
Flowers May to August. A rarity in our neighbourhood. The plant shown was found at the base of a hedgerow in Sugar Lane, but these plants can also be seen in Quarry Lane.
Mayweed
The Mayweeds are a group of white daisy-like flowers that grow on bare and disturbed ground including edges of pavements, gutters and field edges. They are very common all around Mouldsworth and Ashton and flower from May to November.
Knowing you’re looking at a Mayweed is quite easy but knowing which one you’re looking at requires a little investigation!
Identification The white flowers are held in a cup-like structure (and called bracts) at the top of the stem. Look at the flower from underneath, and if there is a brown edge to the bracts you’re looking at a Scentless Mayweed otherwise it’s a Scented Mayweed. Easy!!
Scented Mayweed
This Mayweed is short and hairless, and is usually aromatic growing up to 60cm high. The flowers are generally smaller than the Scentless Mayweed but otherwise are very similar.
It can be seen in Shay Lane.
Scentless Mayweed
The commonest Mayweed this plant is short and hairless, and not aromatic annual/biennial growing up to 60cm high. The leaves are pinnate with thread-like leaflets. It prefers bare and disturbed ground, including edges of pavements and gutters. This example was photographed in the field entrance on the left heading North along Church Road.
Rowan
A tree to 18m with alternate pinnate leaves. The leaves are lanceolate, toothed and hairy beneath. The flowers are foetid and white in colour. Forming flat heads. They are followed by red berries. Grows in woods, moors, hedgerows and is widespread.
The berries have been used to make a relish.
It flowers May to June This plant was growing in the hedgerow on Chapel Lane Mouldsworth.
Solomon’s Seal
A patch forming arching perennial to 80cms with unscented dull white green tipped flowers, succeeded by small blue-black berries in the autumn. It can be a garden escape or conversely a remnant of ancient woods.
The young shoots can be boiled and eaten like asparagus and the macerated roots, which contain a large amount of starch were made into bread by Native Americans. The flowers and roots were powdered and made into a snuff. Italian women were also particularly fond of it for their complexion. Medicinally it has astringent, demulcent and tonic properties and a soothing effect for various parts of the body.
It flowers May to June.
This specimen was found growing by the main road in Mouldsworth, on the right side up from the station, under the trees of the second field, on a wooded bank. It is also found in a wooded dell at a nearby neighbour’s house.
White Campion
This is the white-flowered counterpart of the Red Campion from which it also differs by having slightly larger flowers (25-30mm) and by producing a heavy scent at night, (that attracts moths). Its oval leaves and stems are hairy. Grows to 1m in fields, along hedgerows and roadside verges, and on waste ground. Hybridises with Red Campion to yield a pinkish flower.
Sometimes referred to as the ‘Grave Flower’ or ‘Flower of the Dead’ as it can be seen growing in graveyards and around tombstones.
Flowers May to October. This example was seen on the edge of a field on that part of the Eddisbury Way that links Manley Common and Dark Ark Lane.
White Ramping Fumitory
This is a very delicate plant with tiny leaves and tubular flowers, the latter being of a creamy white appearance, often tinged pink or pale pink and having blackish-pink tips. The plants grow as weeds in cultivated and waste places. They are capable of creeping up walls and hedge banks (hence the name “ramping”) and have weak, straggly stems up to 1 m long.
This species is much less widespread than the Common Fumitory and can be found mainly near the coast and some inland areas.
Whilst not edible, extracts from this species have been tested as a botanical drug for its gastro-intestinal and anti-inflammatory properties. It is reported that if the stems are broken they seep a white latex which is dangerous to eyes and capable of causing glaucoma.
Flowers May to September. The example shown was seen growing as a weed in a cultivated bed in a garden in Smithy Lane, Mouldsworth.
Yellow
Birdsfoot Trefoil
A common attractive low peaflower to 5cms, forming spreading carpets. Most flowers are yellow but can be orange with red buds. Hence, its folk name of eggs and bacon.
Flowers May to September. This example is easily spotted growing on the sandy bank by the footpath, 100metres beyond the village sign on the way to Mouldsworth.
Catsear
A common short/medium perennial. Its flowers are carried on elongated stems above a basal rosette of leaves. It likes short turf or sparsely grassy places, including edges of pavements
It flowers May to October. This example was spotted growing on the sandy bank past the village sign heading towards Mouldsworth. It can also be found growing in Pentre Lane.
Hedge Mustard
A common wayside crucifer having clusters of small, pale, yellow flowers. Stems can be stiff and tangled and as such it is sometimes referred to as the ‘barbed-wire plant’. The basal leaves are deeply pinnately-lobed and typically grow to around 15-20cm in length. The whole plant feels somewhat coarse and hairy to the touch. Crushing or nibbling a leaf will instantly release the characteristic brassica flavour. Grows to 60cm in hedgerows, arable fields and wasteland.
Hedge mustard is edible and can pack quite a pungent, peppery punch, depending on where it is found and the time of year. Apothecary physicians regularly employed this plant as an official medicine during the 17th and 18th centuries, hence its scientific name – ‘officinale‘.
Flowers May to October. The plant shown was seen growing on Sugar Lane, Manley.
Herb Bennet
This is one of the commonest hedge-bank flowers. It is a medium perennial and grows to 70 cm. The flowers are bright yellow, star-shaped and typically 8-15mm in diameter. Their storks are green. Leaves are strawberry-like, the lower ones being pinnate and the stem leaves being 3-lobed. The flowers are followed by fruits held in spherical clusters and are burred with red hooks (see photo). Bennet means blessed (benedictus).
Herbalists once used Herb Bennet to treat poison, dog bites and liver disease but now use it for the treatment of gout, diarrhoea, heart disease and ulcers.
Flowers May-November. The specimen shown was seen growing in Well Lane, Mouldsworth.
Least Yellow Sorrel
This is a variety of Spreading Yellow Sorrel that is smaller in both leaf and flower. It is a low, sometimes mat-forming plant, with creeping thread-like stems, leaflets small (2 to 6 mm) and always green. The yellow flowers are tiny and solitary.
Flowers May to September. The flower shown was growing in gravel in a drive in Smithy Lane, Mouldsworth. It was a possible garden escapee.
Leopardsbane
Yellow flowered perennial garden escape growing to 1m. It has distinctive heart-shaped leaves.
Leopardsbane flowers from May to July. This example was found in Grange Road growing some distance from any garden.
Marsh Marigold
Sometimes known as the Kingcup, is a 10–80 cm high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil. The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, with kidney-shaped leaf blade. Young leaves are protected by a membranous sheath that may be up to 3 cm long in fully grown plants.
It is known by a variety of names, varying by geographical region. These include marsh marigold, kingcup, brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier’s buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican’s cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.
The common name “marigold” refers to its use in medieval churches at Easter as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in “Mary gold”. It is edible when cooked but poisonous raw.
Flowers May to July. However, this specimen was in flower late March. This specimen was seen on the edge of the lake at Spy Hill, earlier than normal.
Meadow Vetchling
The Meadow Vetchling is the most common yellow pea flower that grows in grassland and scrambles through our hedgerows. It can be distinguished beyond its colour by the tendrils and the keeled nature of its stem a characteristic it shares with other members of the pea family.
It flowers from May to August. This example was seen in Shay Lane. The flowers are followed by shiny black seed (pea) pods.
Silverweed
This plant is one of the Cinquefoil family and the only common yellow flowered plant with silvery pinnate leaves. It is a low prostrate perennial with long runners that often create a carpet covering of the ground. It grows in damp bare and sparsely grassy places, waysides and is common on sand dunes.
It is reputed to have astringent, anti-inflammatory and sedative properties. All parts of the plant contain tannin.
It flowers May to August. This example grows on Grange Road in the hollow beyond the fishery.
Sycamore
A common tree to 35m with smooth bark flaking in old age. The leaves are palmately lobed with blunt teeth, often spotted with black fungus. Flowers yellowish green in hanging clusters, followed by ‘helicopter seeds’.
Flowers May to June. This example was found growing alongside the Millennium footpath, near Ashton Brook.
Tormentil
Tormentil is a common, low-growing and creeping perennial of acid grassland, heathland and moorland, but can also be found on roadside verges. It has yellow flowers with four petals, and glossy, deeply toothed leaves with three lobes and silvery undersides, these provide nectar for solitary bees.
It was traditionally used to treat colic, gum disorders, wounds and inflammation. It was also used as a toothpaste and even to make a type of schnapps.
Flowers appear May to September. Found on grassy bank at Spy Hill.
Trailing Snapdragon
The trailing snapdragon is a member of the plantain family. Flowers are pale yellow with pink-purple veins and up to 35mm in length. Leaves are sticky, grey-green, kidney-shaped and shallowly lobed. It is a neophyte (non-native plant) which has escaped from gardens, become naturalised and grows on walls and rocks.
Flowers May to September. The photograph shows a trailing snapdragon growing in the joint of a sandstone wall in Station Road, Mouldsworth.
Welsh Poppy
A pretty, dainty, slightly hairy, plant with bright lemon-yellow flowers (50-75mm) that grows to 60 cm. A perennial of damp, shady, hilly or rocky places. Historically the native wild plant was mostly confined to rocky, wooded slopes in Wales but has since advanced to south-west England. It is widespread elsewhere as a garden escapee.
A stylised image of the Welsh poppy is the logo of Plaid Cymru.
Flowers May to August. The flower pictured was growing in the woods above Brine’s Brow car park.
Yellow Azalea
A sparse non-native shrub to 2m, often bird sown appearing in woods and shrubby areas.
It flowers May to June.
This specimen was found growing on the wooded bank along Church Road between Grange Road and Delamere Road.
Yellow Corydalis
Yellow Corydalis is a short tufted perennial growing to 30cm with rich yellow flowers to 18mm found in dense spikes. The greyish green leaves are 2-3-pinnate with ridged but not winged petioles. It is a member of the Poppy family. It is native to Alpine areas of southern Europe, but the species is well naturalised and commonly grows on walls and in stony places across the British Isles.
It flowers between May and October.
This specimen was growing in West End, Ashton.